The People and History Behind Upeksha

CRAIG CHANDLER

Director of Engineering 

Craig grew up on a farm in the deep south of New Zealand with a passion to explore and invent things. As a child, he built his own hand gliders (never worked), wakeboards, and skateboards. He also spent endless hours fixing go-karts, motorcycles and cars. 

 

It wasn't a surprise that he ended up working as an engineer. Since 2000, he worked overseas for oil and gas companies (what a terrible thing) and his main hobby has been kiteboarding. From the start, he developed his own kite bars and made adjustments and improvements to any kiting equipment he bought.

 

In 2016, during the oil and gas downturn, he was overjoyed to finally have the excuse to take the opportunity to live full time at the beach in Paknampran, Thailand. In his free time, while not kiting or sleeping, he started making his own kiteboards - learning together with other interested kiter friends living nearby. First he became interested in making the boards specifically for jumping high. Next, his interest turned to making optimum boards for downwind slalom racing, however both boards share similar qualities being controllable at high speed.

 

Due to his inclination to be obsessive, he started buying proper equipment for his hobby. Finally realising he wanted to turn his passion into a business (he also realized he never wants to go back into oil and gas). So, he took the plunge to make his dream happen. Upeksha boards were born. The rest is not history, it’s future.